498. To Mrs. S. T. Coleridge
Address: Mrs Coleridge | Greta Hall | Keswick | Cumberland
MS. Lord Latymer, Pub. with omis. Letters, i. 420.
Postmark: 4 April 1803.
Monday, April 4 1803
My dear Sara
I have taken my place for Wednesday Night; & barring accidents, shall arrive at Penrith on Friday Noon. If Friday be a fine morning, i.e. if it do not rain / you will get Mr Jackson to send a lad with a horse or poney to Penruddock / and my Trunk must come by the Carrier. I will walk to Penruddock. -- The boy ought to be at Penruddock by 12 o clock, that his Horse may bait & have a feed of Corn. -- But if it be rain, there is no choice but that I must take a chaise -- at all events, if it please God, I shall be with you by Friday, 5 o'clock, at the latest --. You had better dine early -- I shall take an egg or two at Penrith / & drink Tea at home. -- For more than a fortnight we have had burning July Weather / the effect on my Health was manifest -- but Lamb objected very sensibly -- how do you know, what part may not be owing to the excitement of bustle & company? -- On Friday Night I was unwell & restless -- & uneasy in limbs & stomach / tho' I had been extremely regular -- I told Lamb on Saturday morning, that I guessed that the weather had changed. But there was no mark of it -- it was hotter than ever -- on Saturday evening my right knee, & both my ancles swelled, & were very painful -- & within an hour after there came on a storm of wind & rain / it continued raining the whole night -Yesterday it was a fine day, but cold -- to day the same / but I am a great deal better / & the swelling in my ancles is gone down, & that in my right knee much decreased. -- Lamb observed, that he was glad he had seen all this with his own eyes -- he now knew, that my illness was truly linked with the weather / & no whim or restlessness of disposition in me. -- It is curious; but I have found that the Weather glass changed on Friday Night, the very hour that I found myself unwell. -- I will try to bring down something
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for Hartley; tho' Toys are so outrageously dear -- & I so short of money -- that I shall be puzzled. --
To day I dine again with Sotheby. He ha[s] informed me, that ten gentlemen, who have met me at his House, desired him to solicit me to finish the Christabel, & to permit them to publish it for me / & they engaged that it should be in paper, printing, & decorations the most magnificent Thing that had hitherto appeared. -- Of course, I declined it. The lovely Lady shan't come to that pass! -- Many times rather would I have it printed at Soulby's on the true Ballad Paper / -----However, it was civil -- and Sotheby is very civil to me.
I had purposed not to speak of Mary Lamb -- but I had better write it than tell it. The Thursday before last she met at Rickman's a Mr Babb, an old old Friend & Admirer of her Mother / the next day she smiled in an ominous way -- on Sunday she told her Brother that she was getting bad, with great agony -- on Tuesday morning she layed hold of me with violent agitation, & talked wildly about George Dyer / I told Charles, there was not a moment to lose / and I did not lose a moment -- but went for a Hackney Coach, & took her to the private Madhouse at Hogsden / She was quite calm, & said -- it was the best to do so -- but she wept bitterly two or three times, yet all in a calm way. Charles is cut to the Heart. --
You will send this note to Grasmere -- or the contents of it / tho' if I have time I shall probably write myself to them to d[ay or] tomorrow.
Your's affectionately S. T. Coleridge